This is largely based on a 1953 newspaper article in which 90 year-old Robert McCarroll told the story of his family migrating to New Zealand, with extra detail from newspapers of the time. ~ Ian
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Robert McCarroll was born when his Mum and Dad were 18 and 20 respectively, the first of eleven children — eight sons and three daughters. A fourth girl died in infancy.
Robert’s parents, John McCarroll and Jane Hawthorne, both came from families with long roots in Northern Ireland. When John was 37 his doctor warned him that it was imperative he move to a kinder climate if he was to recover his health — which is why, in 1883, he, Jane and Robert came to be sitting in the parlour of their Belfast home studying an unfamiliar map of colonial New Zealand.
Having resolved to settle somewhere around Auckland, so Robert said, his father, a son and daughter sailed for New Zealand on the Doric, arriving in June 1884 while the rest of the family stayed behind in Belfast. I assume that the son and daughter who went with their father were the next oldest, John (helpfully known as Jack) and Mary. They would have been 18 and 14 respectively when they arrived in New Zealand. 20 year-old Robert, the oldest, appears to have stayed with the family.
In the 1880s Belfast was the largest producer of linen in the world, and linen had been John McCarroll’s business. In Auckland he was soon offering “linens, damasks, towels, diapers, huckabacks, handkerchiefs” etc. from premises at 78 Victoria St West, “four doors above Albert St”.
John and the two kids had no problem selling their stock for a good profit, but they weren’t helped by a bit of juvenile thieving. Five kids appeared in court for stealing cash from tills, including six shillings from theirs. A 7-year old was discharged for lack of evidence, a pair of 11 and 12-year old first offenders were discharged with a warning, and two 8 and 11-year old recidivists were sentenced to a month’s hard labour.
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John applied for land at Mareretu, in Northland, under the government’s Homestead Act. That legislation provided for grants of 300 acres to married men and 75 acres to single men. So the McCarrolls — father and son — got 375 acres of Kauri country. Arrangements could then be made for the rest of the family to come to New Zealand.
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That, at least, is how Robert’s story is reported in that 1953 newspaper article. However there was no “Homestead Act” in New Zealand, so it’s not clear which grant scheme is referred to. The process of land transfer to European ownership is intensely political of course, but unlike the Sisam and Lamont experience in the Bay of Plenty area, and despite occasional tensions and skirmishes, there was no large-scale rebellion or military resistance to the Crown “up north” at the time. As a consequence there were no major land confiscations in Northland.
There were, however, a number of mechanisms through which John and Jack might have acquired their land.These included provincial Waste Lands Acts, Deferred Payment and Perpetual Lease Schemes, and Kauri Timber Leases and Land Grants. The area around Mareretu was rich in Kauri, and the government certainly granted or leased land to settlers on condition that they cleared the timber or developed the land for agriculture afterwards. Someone in the family may know more, but otherwise it would be interesting to delve into local records.
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Meanwhile, back in Belfast, Robert, his mother and the rest of the family set sail for their new home. As they sang “Auld Lang Syne,” Robert said he’d be back in two or three years, but he never made it. They arrived in Auckland on the Aorangi in June 1885.
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The McCarrolls’ holding would have been nothing but bush, so it would have taken some time for land to be cleared and the family moved up. It was a year after the family arrived, in June 1886, that John finally offered his Victoria Street “Good Will, Gas, and Window Fittings, Shelves and Counter” for sale. In September his stock was on offer at “greatly reduced prices” from premises at 82 Queen Street.
In 1886 most of the family were still living in Auckland. One late night in October fire broke out in Upper Symonds Street, in premises opposite Messrs Winstone’s stables. There were two shops downstairs, of which one was rented by the McCarrolls, and that’s where the fire broke out. The family were living upstairs, although John was “on a visit to the Kaipara”. A visitor smelt smoke and roused everyone, and they escaped over the verandah with Mr Winstone’s help.
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Think what a dramatic change this must have been for the migrant family — from the “linen manufactories” of Belfast to New Zealand’s untouched Kauri forest. The timber to fell and get to market. The land to clear and get ready for farming. Their home to build and their new pioneering lives established. Two more children were born after the move to New Zealand. All were raised on the original farm, known as McCarroll’s Gap Homestead, and their various obituaries and memorials proudly state that they were educated in Mareretu.